Dreaming Clark
by Annie2
Summary: Lex had bad dreams.


Dreaming Clark  
  
By Annie  
  
Rated: PG-13  
  
Summary: Lex had dreams; brief scene; could be anytime, but likely Season 1.  
  
Spoilers: Assume all eps  
  
Disclaimer: Still not mine, no matter how many candles I blow out. :(  
  
Feedback: crehnertptd.net  
  
Dreaming men are haunted men. -- Stephen Vincent Benet  
  
"What do you dream, Lex?"  
  
One minimally-raised eyebrow was the only indication that Clark's question caught him by  
  
surprise. "A rather personal question, don't you think, Clark?" Lex hid a smile as Clark shifted in  
  
his place on the couch a bit uncomfortably. He closed his laptop, coming around the desk to pour  
  
a few fingers of Scotch into a gold-rimmed glass.   
  
"I was just wondering. I thought maybe you always had huge epic dreams about old Greek myths,  
  
or maybe nightmares about your business deals. Or maybe you just dream everything in green."  
  
Clark grinned playfully.  
  
Lex frowned for a second and then laughed, a rare enough sound that Clark reveled in it  
  
gratefully. He didn't want Lex angry about being asked personal questions. Lex came and sat on  
  
the opposite end of the couch, relaxing back into the soft leather and loosening his tie a bit more.  
  
"Let me see if I can guess what you dream," he teased, taking a sip from his glass to hide yet  
  
another smile. "I can see Clark Kent's dreams and they're full of brunettes and blondes, term  
  
papers, chores and new trucks your Dad won't let you have. How close am I?"  
  
Clark shook his head. "Nowhere near."  
  
Lex hid his surprise yet again. "What brought on this intriguing, probably philosophical  
  
discussion we're about to have?"  
  
Clark shrugged. "I have bad dreams sometimes. A lot actually." He tapped the side of his head  
  
lightly. "Not all blondes and brunettes in here, apparently."  
  
Lex looked thoughtful for such a long time then that Clark thought the discussion was over  
  
before it started. "You're talking to the king of nightmares, Clark," Lex said finally, taking  
  
another sip of Scotch as he decided to continue what Clark had started.  
  
"After the meteor shower, I had nightmares for years. They haunted me night and day. I'd wake  
  
up screaming and thrashing around in the covers." A ghost of a smile wafted across Lex's  
  
suddenly sad face. "My Mother would come running into my room from way down the hall.  
  
She'd want to comfort me, but of course my Father would come running right behind her, telling  
  
her how she was making me weak by not allowing me to work my own way through them. I  
  
wanted my Mother when I woke up, terrified, in the dark. She knew it, and she'd defy him by  
  
coming to my rescue, to make sure I was fully awake and out of whatever particular nightmare I  
  
was having that night. My Father gave her a hard time about it, but she wouldn't give in."  
  
"I'm sorry, Lex."  
  
"It's not your fault, Clark. Anyway, after a few years, the nightmares started to abate a little, and  
  
were replaced by this....I have to say it, and don't think I'm crazy....this presence in my dreams. I  
  
don't remember anything for a few days after the meteor shower. I was in shock, of course, being  
  
so young and going through something like that was extremely traumatizing. The nightmares  
  
started playing out differently in my head after my Mother died. Instead of constant images of  
  
fire raining down on me and cries for help coming from every direction, there was comfort. It  
  
was like my Mother's hand stroking the side of my face to ease my fears. I'd wake up sometimes  
  
wanting to see her, but she was never there. I told myself she was still trying to chase away the  
  
bad dreams. Still taking care of me. Right through my adolescent years, the nightmares still  
  
came, the comforting presence still chased them away. I began to realize, after a while, that the  
  
presence had always been there. From the very first dream. As long as I had my Mother to  
  
comfort me, to chase the nightmares away, I hadn't needed this...whatever it was."  
  
"That's a wonderful story, Lex"  
  
Half smile then, as Lex took a small sip of his Scotch. "It's not the whole story. Not as far as I'm  
  
concerned."  
  
Clark frowned. "You still have these nightmares?" he asked, averting his eyes briefly.  
  
"When I opened my eyes and saw you leaning over me after you pulled me out of the river, I  
  
knew we had a destiny," Lex explained, ignoring the question. "I wasn't sure exactly what that  
  
destiny would be. I'm still not sure, but I have learned never to second-guess my own intuition.   
  
That same night, my feelings were confirmed without a doubt in my mind."  
  
Clark was puzzled. "I was in your nightmare?"  
  
"You were always in them."  
  
"Lex? How could that be," Clark asked uneasily.  
  
"It wasn't my Mother comforting me in my dreams, Clark." Lex admitted, leaning closer  
  
earnestly. "Somehow, it was you. Then you pulled me out of the river and I didn't need you in  
  
my dreams anymore."  
  
"What would make you think that?" Clark wanted to know, instinctively leaning toward Lex,  
  
waiting for his answer.  
  
"I was finally here with you. Destiny was being fulfilled on Loeb's Bridge. After you saved me, I  
  
never had the dreams again." 


End file.
